Feinstein calls out Peter King’s Islamophobia and ‘hatred’ for Muslims

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on Sunday lashed out at New York Rep. Peter King (R) for creating “disdain and hatred” for Muslims following last week’s bombing in Boston.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked King in a Sunday interview if he agreed that “political correctness be damned, we have to do more effective surveillance inside the Muslim community.”

“The threat is coming from within the Muslim community within these cases in New York,” King asserted. “They are getting people in our country, who are under the radar screen, who have clean records. We saw it in the Times Square bomber, the subway bomber in New York. And now we’ve seen it — it appears — in Massachusetts.”

“And 99 percent of the Muslims are outstanding Americans. The fact is, that’s where the threat is coming from,” he added. “If you know where the threat is coming from a certain community, that’s where you have to look.”

Feinstein, however, argued that King’s rhetoric was not very helpful.

“I think the important thing is to get the facts, let the investigation proceed,” she pointed out. “With respect to whether we are doing enough in the Muslim community, I think we should take a look at that.”

“But I don’t think we need to go and develop some real disdain and hatred on television about it.”

Wallace interrupted: “I must say, I don’t think that’s what Congressman King was saying. He was saying, that’s where the threat is coming from, we have to address the threat.”

“Well, this came at this point from two individuals,” Feinstein explained. “That’s what we really do know. We do not know what their connections are. So, I think we ought to find out before we begin to charge them with all kinds of associations.”

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David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.